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CANADA SEPTEMBER 1981 No. 50 25~
Defend Vietnam and the Soviet Union!
U.S./China Anti- Soviet War Axis
General I1aig's announcement at the end of his June China trip that the (I.S. will arm Peking with "lethal weapons" is the most dange rous provocation against the lTSSI{ since this most provocative /{eagan regime took oHice. It is not merely another finesse of "China card" diplomacy. The deepenmg U.S. /ChiJ!a alliance has now become an openly declared anti-Soviet military axis-a deal for action against the Soviets and Lel "increase the polit)('al. economic. and, yes, military pressures on Vietnam" (New York Times. 18 June). Liketl~' Ja:p;nese invasion of MaJH'illiria in 19:11, now recognizp·! dS the very rirst shots of World War II, the U.S. /China arms deal may well be the direct prelude to WW III. -
- --
-Joint American/Chinese military support to anti-Russian 1-.--------------:-;""""',....,.-1 Afghans and anti- Vietnamese Carnbodians is envisioned. The Chinese bless the Ame rieans to deepen their miEtary cum
Halg and Deng seal anti-Soviet military alliance in big step toward World War III.
mitment in El Salvaflor and against Nicaragua and Cuba. Now South Africa has invaded Angola. A military "roll-back" in Angola and Namibia. to be t'ronted by Suuti, /'It'('iC<I, i3 slll'cly /.'or'eset'n.
But the one-family-run Saudi i\rabia and the hated 1:ia of Pakistan are less than slender reeds. l\nd as for Begin's Israel: whom the gods would destroy. they first make mad. l1l'agan's :iunior imperialist partners in Ottawa gave thc'ir stamp ()r approval to the U.S./China an.ls deal when in a recent ,junket
to China. Canadian E:.;ternal Allairs Ivlinistcr i\Luk MacGuigan announced Canada's readiness t() slipply "strategic goods" to China (see page 1~). 1\iul'GlIigan stated: "It's the kind or change whil'h is being made by members of the Western alliance in w'n"ral with regard to China" (Globe and l\laiJ, 21 /\ugllsi). nut the consummation of an effective Chinese/ !\merican bloc will require considerable arm-twisting ot' West European allies and increasingly (It''em lItlea"y
(l'oldjIlUl·d ()ll P;IJ-~(' .:)
2
China ••• (continued from page l)
Japan-at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars from an economically weakened United States. And for what ') It's a lot easier to hunt down and 1'0 rcibly abort black welfare mothers ("Right to Lire" not- C
withstanding) than to try the same on the Red Army. Now II aig shouts in the ['ace of the Soviets that
two years ago-when Washington lost its "listening stations" in Iran with the mullah victory over the U.S.-backed shah-the U.S. built a supcr spy station embedded in the Sinkiang mountains near the Soviet border. The Chinese spy station is the one place where U.S. imperialism can monitor Soviet missile tests from launch through night over Siberia to dispersion of warheads. Together the Chinese Stalinists and their CIA "advisers" gather the rll()st s('nsitivC' 1l1ilitary intelligence to use against the nussians: missi [(' range. accuracy. payload. communications guidance.
The shift to an announced military alliance opens the way for Peking to modernize its arsenal with U.S. guidance systems for strategic weapons. antitank missiles. fighter planes. a delivery system ['01'
its primitive nuclear weapons and every kind oj'
combat hardware. Just how much of this war machinery the Chinese military can absorb and pay ror in the immediate future is not now known. But their generals will be taking the short march to the Pentagon with a considerable shopping list.
Even Cyrus Vance. Carter's hapless Secretarv of State. called the deal "needlessly provocative' and smack[ing] of bear-baiting" (New York Times. 24 June). But the baited Russian bear responded with deliberately measured language in a Pravda article under official signature. calling the arms agreement "highly dangerous." and "an escalation of reckless policy" (New York Times. 28 June). The Russians have w~ed many times of the consequences of the U.S. arming China with strategic weapons. This time Russia warned simply and without bluster that "nobody should doubt that the Soviet people. who have good nerves and powerful means 0[' curbing aggression, will not yield to provllcations and will be able to stand up 1'01' themselves. to defend the interests oj' their j'riends and allies."
The Russian perception of the U.S. (China axis is well known. Few things tilis side oj' an actual U.S. military adventure against the Soviet Union. ('uba or the Eastern bloc could be as provocative as the arming or China. The view ['rom tlw Kremlin is that China is even more likely than the U.S. to squeeze the nuclear trigger in a bout of fanatical anti -Soviet
Spartacist Canada Published by the SPARTACIST CANADA PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION. Box 6867. Station A. Toronto.Ont. M5W 1X6
EDITORIAL BOARD: J. Klancy (Editor), S. Peters (Production Manager), N. Carson, S. Morin, O. Stephens
Circulation Manager: P. Harris Business Manager: S. Magid
Signed articles do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint.
Printed in a union shop by union labor.
"
SPARTACIST /Canada
frenzy ~nd miscalculated geo-political strategy. j\nd the SOVIets ])lay well be right. It is more than their traditional fear 01' encirclement by hostile powers that accounts for their obsession with China. l\lao and his heirs have seemed quite crazed in their view of nuclear war. A Pravda article. for instance. noted that "Peking has its own interests to pursue. namely to set the United States and the Soviet Union against each other so as to be able to dominate the world after a nuclear conflict." And this view of China is not new. Khrushchev recalled a conversation with Mao Tsetung as they sunbathed at pools ide in Peking in 1954:
"Mao rep'lied by trying to assur(' In" th"t the
Atomic bornb was a PdP"" tiger' 'List"l1 Corn
l'cHl" Khrushchev,' he said. 'All YOlI haY"~ to do is p,'uvokp th(' Americans into nlilitary action
;\Ild I'll give you ClS rnany nlilitary clivisions <IS
yuu Jlcc·d to cTush thcln-a hundred, two InI11dn·d,
one thousand divisions. ' I tried to explain to him that one or tWll missiles could tUI'n all the di
visions in China to dust. Bllt h(' wIJu1dn't. ('ven
list('l1. And obviously regard"d rHe as il coward."
-ISl~,=-,-,sl~llev B:.'c:m"mbe~, 1970
The U.S. (China war axis is certainly a sinister and strangely complementary aff'air. Reagan and Ilaig dream oj' being the victorious survivor'S of a nuclear war against I{ussia due to high-tech "Star War's" weapons super·iority. while th~ir I{ussianhating allies in Peking nurture survival fantasies based on technological underdevelopment-sheer numbers.
It was Carter and Brzezinski who launched the present thrust toward war with the Soviets. and [teagan has escalated it dangerously. There are some things the Hussians cannot abide. and F{eagan knows it. When [Iarold Brown. Carter's defense seer'ctary. went to China to point the way towal'd overt military collaboration. we wrotc:
"It is sirnply too dangerous for th(' Russians if the U.S. doomsday Inachinery is placed in til<' h;n,ds of th( Chines ... For the Russian>; pL,ying
the China card is no diplomatic ganl('; it is a 111atter of' Ii [" and death."
-"Rllssi;l11s Fed Up," 'l/{urkers VanR"ill'd N(). 24'), R February 19KO -
I··or the Ilussians. taking (Jut the Chinese str'atE'gic weapons is not at all unthinkable. Last January, Leonid Br-ezlmE'v poundE'd a desk in Paris and laic! out the Chinese tripwire for World War III. lie was quoted by the president of the ['rench national assembly as saying:
"B,,]j('V(' rn(', after the ckstrudiuli of Chin('s~'
nuclear sites hy our rnissiles, ther" won't be nlll<·h tiln,' fOl' the Ame rica))s tu choose between
the cief"nse ()f their Chinc'se ;.d1i(·s rind p('ilceful (o-exis1.enc(' with liS."
-New Yorl, Times, 30 Jil)1U,iry l,)HO
Vietnam, Poland ... the World
When China gets the guns. China intends to use them. As lJaig and the Peking leaders exchanged
(continued on page ll)
-'--_. __ 1'- -.---....
September 1981 3
Hundreds Join TLD Protest
Asylum for Tamils in West Berlin!
Chanting" Political asylum for the Tamil t'efugeps!" and "Stop the clcpot'tation of Tamils!" about 350 people ralliecl in West Berlin on July 24 to protest the government's deportation of Tarnil refugees who had fled from Sd Lanka to Wpst Bedin. The overwhelming majorHy of those attending the unitedfront demonstration callpcl by the Trotzkistisrhe Liga Deutschlands (TLU-German section of the intcrnational Spartacist tcndency) we1'e themsl'1ves Tamils facing the threat of cleportation. In the last few months thollsands of Tamils from Sri Lanka have u1'rived in West Berlin seeking political asylum in "democratic" West Germany. They were among the fortunate few who could escape the antiTamil state repression in Sri Lanka by getting out on Soviet 1\ero/'lot jetliners bound for East Germany and then crossing over to West Germany. Even well-to-do Tamils have hel'n victimi zed in the t'ecent wave or repression by Sri Lankan president J.B,. Jayewardene's 1'egirlH' aimed at crushing agitation fot' an independcnt Tamil state (Tamil Eelam) on the island. 1\ state or emcrgency was declared in the northern Tamil region or Janna, Tamil militants have been abducted and murdered by the police and militarY. Ilindll tC'mples and (lJ'l'ices of Tamil organi/',atiot1s have been burncd down. (See "Uown with Anti-Tamil Terro1' in St'i Lanka, " Spartacist Canada No. 4D, July/August).
But the West Berlin Scnate, dominated by Jayewardenc's hrothers under the skin, the Christian Delllocrats, flatly t'cl'used the Tamil refugees' appeals fur political asylulll. The refugecs were [orcecl to camp fur nearlv a week in West Berlin's main railway station, while Ct'icnds, civil lihertarian ()rganj,oations and the like tdee! to find tlwtn shelter in transient hotels. camps, school gyms. One reJ'uget' was a1't'cstcd in front 01' the railway station July 6 and was to be ej'epot'tcd on July 24. Another 140 Tamils wen~ arrestee! by the cops and held pending dcpo t'tation as iHegal iml1l i g1'ants, on the technicality that they failed to have their papers stamped by the West German l'mbassy in Colombo. 1\ccording to newspaper reports. the police seized many o[ them as tlley wen' standing in line waiting to apply for political asylunl!
1\1eanwhile, the government and bourgeois press launched a smear' ('ampaign trying tu deny that the Tamils wen! political refugees from pogromist tet't'or. (West Germany of ,'()urse is up to its neck in investments in Sri L3.nka's neo-colonialist "Free Tracie Zones. ") West Bcdin's minister of the interior Lummc1' Grander! the Tamils as "fake ret'ugees,"
I '" ", ~ '$ *.' >"~ \
"'41' ",'~ ,(,¥ '~. ,
,. ! ,'. ",". 1"1, ~ ~ ,..
~:~I!,
~'y,~""', ~/"'''':''f:
4j["".,
t,,<~$:""'"
Spartakist
West Berlin, July 24: German Trotskyists Initiate protest against expulsion of Tamils.
lured to West Germany in hopes of the good life and high wages. Social affait's minister Fink went so far as to suggest that it all was a Communist plot: "1\ero/'lot is responsible for the flood of refugees." Some 'of the more rea,ctionary bourgeoi s politicians are so worked up over the innux of Tamils that they must be thinking of setting up their own Berlin Wall at ]"riedrichstrasse to keep out dark-skinned immigrants.
The government gave the Tamil refugees a brutal ultimatum: leave now at our e:-:pense, or wait to get deporb,d at you l' own expense. Faced with this choice, 125 Tam ils agreed to "voluntary" depo1'tation on July 21, flying back to Sri Lanka (on a plane chartered from Air Berlin USA) together with some West German journalists. Fifty-six of the Tamils were arrestecl at the Colombo airport; the first 60 escaped arrest only because the plane landed an hour ahead of schedule. The West German journalists were forbidden to have any contact with spokesmen of the TULI,' (Tamil United Liberation Front, the bourgeOiS parliamentary voice of the Tamil minority) 01' utileI' Tamil organizations. The West German ambassador arrived at a scheduled press conference with the journalists only to find that it had been canceled by the government. Heporters trying to file stories had their overseas phone calls simply cut off. Despite this repression and censorship giving the lie to the West Berlin
(continued ()Il page j 1)
.,'
III
4 SPARTACIST /Canada
Postal Workers Sold Out The si.x-wcek str'ike or the Canadian Union ol'
Postal Workers (ct:PW) l'nded August 10 with the Dve t'whe 1 m ing acceptance ol' a cont raet drafted al'Ll'l' cla,),s 01' closed-door mediation wheE·ling and dealing in Ottawa. eu PW national president JeanClauciP i'arrot said it was a contract he could "live wit.h"-hc doesn't have to. But the 2:).000 members of his union will havE' plenty of trouble "living" with this two-ycar' deal that gives them a 70 cent an hour wage increase in both yeal's and a cost-(lf-living allowance that doesn't tri gger until postal workers haVe> lost six pet'l'cnt 01' their purchasing power.
I
se Photo
Vancouver CUPW strikers.
This strike was not the dr'amatic labor showdown 01' 197tl when the Trudeau government unleashed a harr'age or strikehreaking laws backed up by the cops and the H,C]\ll' to tr'ample the militant postal workers' strike. I'arrot was jailed in the al'termath or that strike ror his initial deriance 0[' the bosses' anti-labol'laws. In this contract battle Parr'ot stuck tu the letter or th(' law playing by all the bosses' rules. ThE' union's original gO demands were :junked in I'avor 0[' the t'l'C'Clll1l1lendations of a "neutral" conciliator. But the government wasn't buyingno matter how "reasonable" the Cl11) W tops were. It was hoping to starvc out and demoralize CLl PW to drive home its union-busting message to all or labor.
'fhc ranks didn't (,t'at'k and ror 42 clays they stayed out solid fal'ing down a vicious anti-union l'ampaign by the g()vcr'nnwnt and the bosses' press.
But Parrot & Co. certainly aren't worthy or the workers they presume to lead. The CUPW leadership has attempted to assure the government of two years or "labor peace" in the post office with a sellout deal that gives postal workers little or no protection against double-digit inflation • .iob loss and speed-up.
Parrot sold this deal to the ranks with the promise that "real" gains would be won after the post office is converted into a Crown Corporation in September. The CUPW leader has staked his career on the demand for a ('rown Corporation even having buttons distributed reading "A Crown Corporation Will Deliver." You can bet it will-but it is the ('tJPW membership that will be on the receiving end. Crown Corporation boss Michael Warren. soon to assume his post. has already given a glimpse of what lies ahead with his threat to drop parcel post delivery altogether at the cost 01' thousands of jobs.
For One Union of All Postal Workers In an interview after the contract had been rat
ified Parrot commented that the CLlPW strike had demonstrated the need for one union of all postal workers. This from the man who railroaded through a two-year contract. undercutting the possibility 1'01' one strike of all postal workers that would [,orge-through struggle-one strong merged union in the post office. Moreover. Parrot's call for merger came right after he led a six-week strike for a contract that was only a slightly sweetened version or thE' rotten deal bought by the leadership or thc Letter Carriers Union of Canada (LCUC)without a strike. If' Parrot were seri.ous he would have called on the LCUC to come out together with C(JPW for a decent cuntract.
Parrot's counterparts in the LCUC bureaucracy thumhed their noses at the call for merger. Ever thE' responsible labor statesman LCUC national pr'esident Ilobert J\lcGarry replied. "Our position is our union will maintain its own identity. That's what our constitution says and as far as merger goes. it's out of the question" (Toronto Star. 11 August). --
McGarry has made more than his contribution to keeping pustal workers divided along craft lines with a history of mutual scabbing deals with CLlPW. rotten contracts that have been used by the government as a club against CUPW and promoting collaboration with the bosses as the "other way" for the postal unions. In this strike he once again lived up to his own miserable record. In exchange ror unemployment insurance benefits ]\JcGarry all but sold his union to the government. No statements of solidarity. no financial contributions but above all no active solidarity with the CUl'W strikers. Union militants were warned to stay away
111111.
September 1981
from the picket lines with the threat that unemployment benefits would be cut off not just for themselves but for every member of their local. Thus the letter carriers' union leaders actively carried out the government's "divide and rule" strategy. betraying CUPW and setting up militants in their own union. As an extra measure of his subservience McGarry agreed to a scabbing deal ror his union to deliver governrnent checks during the strike.
Militants in LCUC Local 1 in Toronto fought against this betrayal. putting forward motions to get their union to build ,joint picket lines with CUPW to shut down the government's Priority Post service that was kept running through the strike and to boycott the delivery of' the government checks. Despite their leaderships. solidarity between the ranks of the two unions has been seen time and again in recent years. shutting down postal service by respecting each other's picket lines. On the CUPW picket lines sentiment for one union was alm'ost unanimous. But the postal union tops have stood in the way of translating this sentiment into action-a united contract right by all postal workers that would lay the basis for one industrial union.
The Trotskyist League (TL) intervened into CUPW ratification meetings in Toronto and Vancouver with a leal'let calling on the postal workers to vote down this stinking df'al and fight to win. The leaflet stressed the necessity of shutting down Priority Post. organil:ing the courier services that keep mail running for big business and above all bringing the LCUC out on strike with powerful strike demands addressing the needs of all postal workf'rs. Key to this strategy for victory was electing a new strike leadership that would lead such a fight. Parrot & Co. had "won" what they asked for and that was basically nothing I The wage demands were never in dispute. The much talked-about 17-week paid maternity leave which was finally all but conceded will cost the government pennies per postal worker.
The rest oCtile left. however. claimed a "victory" for the postal workers-it had to be. the strike was led by their Cavorite "militant" .JeanClaude Parrot. Som e of those in a position to do so. such as the ever-dwindling number of support-
~
WfJltltE1I811116111AIII) Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the
Spartaclst League
SUBSCRIBE! $5/24 issues (Includes Spart8c/st)
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Address _______ ---,_-----____ _
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Order from/pay to: SPARTACIST PUBLISHING CO, Box 1317 GPO. New York, N,Y, 10116
ers 01' the Canadian Party of T ,abour in Toront(), argued and voted for acceptance.
In Vancouver where even the local leadership
5
had recommended rejection ()f the contract (it was acct'ptecl by a narrow 52 percent majority). it was left to supporters oj' the fake-Trotskyist l~l'volutionary Workers Lt'ague (RWL) to alibi Parrot's sellout. At the August}) Vancouver Strike Cummittee meeting RWL supporters took great pains lo point to the "positive aspects" of the contract and called it a "victory." .As I'or In Struggle!. which has in the past deCencled Parrot against the rf'V()lutionary criticism of the 'fL. they could only see the contract as representing "Significant gains for posties." The Workers Communist Party (WC!') didn't have the guts to call for a "no" vote. In a special leaflet issued in Vancouver the WeI' simply mimicked the CUPW bureaucracy's slogan. calling to "Continue the Struggle." But when the contract was accepted the WCI" s paper the l"orge headlined "Ottawa loses the roune!,"
The CUPW strikers were in a unique position to spearhead a labor counteroffensive against their employer-the strikebreaking. union-busting capitalist government. .As the TL leaflet pointed out:
"The P"('SS SCr('drnS i(lI' Ihe T,-"cie;)\! govern
rneni 10 'Liv('lik" R(,;lgdn'-slil"h budgl,ts,
snlilsh sll'ikes imd gel lough wilh l,,})ur, BtLt
across the counl,'y workers h"v(' shown th;r!
they ill'(' willing t() takc OTi Ih(' (,;lpiLr]i "I oN"lI-
s i ',1('. It i s t h l' I il b 0 I' bu n' ilU c t' ;rt s who h ,I V (' (- a v ( , d
in ill eve'ry ol,c,jol' confrontation. IV" Jl('('d " !ll'W
ICilri"n;hip uf th" labor rn()v(,rYl(,Jlt that will
fight Ih(, buss(':;, not bow b"fuI'" i.ll<'rn, j-'ost;d
worl,,,,'s b;lI,tle all ('rnpJoYl'I,-tllt' capit;llist
gov('rllrnellt--wj,ich lil('r;llly ,nilk('s his ,IWll
laws, dPf)()iJlts judges dlld C()I1H1,dll<is his llwn
itt'lYlcd slrikeb]'('"k(','s, The wu!'],illg "'1ass n('('ds
its own gov('t'nrnent. Such a govl'!'llnl,'nt wi]]
n('v('r be won by tIl(' so('ial-d('lno,'I,;t!i,' st"ij",
b]'('akers (If Ihe NDP. For it work,'rs I'ilrty
that fights for a wOI'ket's goV('rnllll'ld' ".
SPARTACIST No. 31-32 Summer 1981
Includes: • EI Salvador: Smash Junta
Terrorl • May 3 EI Salvador Protests:
Anll-Imperlallst Conllngent Draw. Clas. Line
• Healylle Libel Sull: An Attack on Workers Movement
• No to the NATO Popular Front In Francel
• SWP's About-Face on Afghanistan
• Iranllraq Blood Feud • Spartaclst League Formed In
Sri Lanka
Order from/pay to: Spartacist Publishing Co, Box 1377 GPO New York, NY 10116
75 cents
, ..
~~ ~
!Jetense ot Cub In, £1 Salvador! a, USSR Begins MIlitary Vi t Insurgents~ ory to Leftist
I11I1111I
6 SPART ACIST /Canada
Canadian Controllers Back PATCO
Reagan's War on U.S. Labor In firing the striking air trafl'ic controllers.
Ronald Reagan has declared war against the U.S. workers DlOvement. lIe has also dropped a political bomb that could explode in his face. 11 e is out to utterly destroy the controllers union and cripple the U.S. labor movement. particularly government workers. and incidentally maybe kill the public in plane crashes. The right-wing fanatic in the White
• UPI Photo
U.S. air traffic controller led from court In shackles.
House who has been victimizing black welfare mothers and the elderly poor has decided to go after labor. which has the muscle to fight back ~' only it will use it! - WhatRe~gan has done hasn'i, happened since the rise o[ the CIO. Never has the entire membership of a national union been fired. Reagan says this is an illegal strike. Air controllers union chief R{)bert PoE answered this well: "The only illegal strike is a strike that fails."
Heagan intends to crush the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) with such force that the impact will be [elt by all government workers. Thus the strike quickly transcended the immediate interests of the air controllers.
posing the issues of the right to strike and simply the right to organize for the entire working class.
The Wall Street Journal (!) j\ugust) saw even larger msons to editorialize for "No Compromise" with the contt'ollet's. Behind Reagan's ,jawjutting was the authority of the imperial presidency itself. including "a whole range of issues with global implications. They include. for example. commitments to rebuild military strength ... to resist Soviet inlperialis m. II Indeed. part of the Reagan adrninistration's shoot-em-up-tough-g11v stance is doubtless meant for consunLption by ['ot'eigners: Kremlin bureaucrats. European leaders hips and Third World caudillos arc supposed to understand that a man who is cheerl'ully prepared to make war on 12.000 American workers is hardly going to be soft on foreigners. The same week that the administration fired the controllers it leaked the news that it was building neutron bombs despite European objections. i\nd Polish Solidarity should take note: this is what happens to "free" trade unions which strike against the state in the capitalist \'Vest.
It is ironic that I'ATCO. a small union on the n1argins of the union movement. is on tile \'ront line of Heagan's assault on \'.S. labot'. The air controllers are a highly paid group who view themselves as nLiddle-class pro\'essionals. S()cially conservative, they have been particularly susceptible to the growing anti-Soviet pulitical climate. New York controllprs "boycotted" an A(,r'o\'lot jet carrying Russian ambassador ])obrynin after the Soviet intervention in !\Ighanistan. And PATCO was one or the few unions that supported Heagan ['or president. Their "prorE~ssionalist" attitude has led the controllers to look more to pressure from the airlines than to labor solidarity 1"01' help in their fight against Heagan's union busting. There needs to be ~ singlc union of airline workers embracing pilots. controllers. mechanics. baggage handlers. etc.
Heagan is gambling that he ('an completely destroy a trade union and the cowardly American labor bureaucrac,Y will ,iust whine and eat it. j\nd so far they have. !'-;ot a single union leader has called for labor action in solidarity with the controllers. Reagan has issued a challenge to the entire American labor movement. And it' Amet'ican labor docs not act in solidarity with the controller'S this will encourage the t'llling dass in further union busting. ,
On the other hand. if neagan gpts beat. and particularly if he gets'bpat because the American labor movement exerts its muscle against him. it will be a significant victot'y. the I'irst in a long time. And
I J,
September 1981
Defend USSR/Cuba I July 19. About HO people' joined Trotskyist Lpague
initiated Anti-Imperialist
Contingents in Ottawa (right)
and Valll'OU ve r (be low) to
demonstrate for n1ilitary victory to Salvadoran leftists
,mel defense of the USSR/Cuba.
H)ll rallied in Vancouvpr to
prutest U.S. intervention in £1 Salvac!ur. In Ottawa a TL
hill111e'r "Hail Red Arm.y in
AfL(hanistan I Defense of Cuba,
USSR Begins in El Salvador I"
stuud mIt in the cl'owd of 'i,000 marching to protest
the imperialist summit.
one that could significantly increase the cornbativity or the working class in resisting a J'ull-nedged war on labor.
For Labor Solldarltyl Shut Down the Alrportsl
If Heagan thinks he can count on the wretchedness of the American union bureaucracy, the ,workers movement in other countries is :something else again. Reagan with his right-wing tough-guy image is very unpopular in Europe. where he is generally seen as a trigger-happy warmonger who will blow us all to kingdom come. Now is a perfect chance ror European workers to hit back at the reactionary American monarch. Air travel is an international industry ~ excellence. An international labor boycott of American air space and airlines could be decisive in winning the strike and would be a hard blow against Reagan.
The Canadi.an air traffic controllers staged the most dramatic and effective action of labor solidarity so far in the strike with their 26-hour boy-
7
~\I ~ ':1~1' " , ,
• ¥
,._ I iJ'\1
""", ~ , ..... ; ," ",l y ... I,.
cntt of U.S. air traffic. In the we~k arter the U.S. r:ontrollers went out. on August :~. members of the Canadian Air Traffic Controllers Association (CATCA) in Vancouver. Toronto, Calgary and other centers were sent home ['or refusing to handle U.S. nights. Six days later on August 9. defying the government's threats of fines and jailing. CATCA announced that its members would no longer process nights to or from the United States. The boycott completely shut down the trans-Atlantic corridor frorn Gander. disrupting air travel world wide.
The boycott was called off by the CATCA leadership when they reached an agreement with the government to let joint union/management "fact-finding teams" investigate safety problems for 90 days. "Investigate" safety! -American air space is now about as safe as a grenade range. At a press conference on l\uguSt 27. CATCA president Bill Robertson said investigation into 61 alleged incidents had uncovered 48 substantial errors by U.S. controllers!
(continued on page 14)
8 SPART ACIST /Canada
Proletarian Political Revolution Will Put Peo~le to Work
'I(;ns oj' thousands melrch through Lodz protesting j'o()d shortag-es. A column or 200 buses and trucks (H'('upi('s ('entt'ell Warsaw for three clays, its organj,cer's <!('manding that the goverlHlll'nt reverse a cut ()I' 20 Ill't'('('nt in the meat ration. Yet even Solidar'ity ;51)(lkcS]l]('n admit th\c' ration cut is nec('ssitatcd by a('tllal sll(lr'tagcs. There is no nleat, ()r soap, or l'igan'ttcs. /\nd now the gov(:rnl1lent plans price in('r'('as('s ()j' 100-:;00 lwrcl'nt on basic COllSllmcr gl)(lc!S. J I ll\V long ('an things go on like this ')
Silll'C' last slimmer's genct'al strike gave rise tn a I'I)IV1>r'['u] I1(,W unioil Illovement. So1iclarnost, I'ojallci has b('(>n in a state of cold dual power. As S()] idarit\' and the IV('akl'nl'd regime have gone I'rom ('Olli't'lllltatiotl t(1 l'onl't'ontation, pulling back at thc last l11inlltl', tile ('ountr'y has desccnded into l'CO-
1101tli(' ('haos. I'artly. people havc stopped working sitll'c tl1(' /,]"tys they earn no longer buy anything. I)llt at i)()ttoJ1l the general collapse of work disci-pl i11I' is jl()litical. 'II)(' ()ai ('ial "Comrnunist" system (atlllalLy Stalinisl bu['('aucratiI' rule) is hopelessly dis('I'I·clit.('d, No 11l1C believes it is possible to turl1 thl' ('ai('ndar back bcl'()['c August HlBO. At the same' tiltH'. no 011(' knows what will happen tOl1lorrowthen' i;-.; 1111 jllilger an,Y positivc goal to work for.
N() signil'i('allt ['or('(' in I'oland is ['ighting ['or a s(wialist soiuti()n to the' crisis. Eathl'r, the proInng('d social crisis has generated a dec'ply anar('Iti(' spit'it 1'1\(']('<1 Il) nationalistic resentment. TI)(' "!JllJlge t' lllal'('ll('rs" hav(, lost all sense that to have ('\TIl (,hi ('k('11 in tIle sltll)JS, St)tneOIlC t11uSt raise t1)(,I11, blltl'hC'l'th('m, pluck them and transport them. In 1)1'11(']' t() ('at, ()1lI' must work I Instl'acl tlH~'y SC('tn
---------~. ------ - - -- -------
to believe' that bv demonstrating vociferously, cursing the bureauc racy, bemoaning t11C' histori c plight of the Polish nation, denouncing Maria Theresa, lamenting the' First, Second and Third Partitions and blaming Elussia for the Eatyn ['orest massacre, meat will somehnw appear in the shops. Perhaps thl'y think that if they make enough trouble, the n,ussians to pacify thenl will once more come through with shipments oj' poultry I'rom the'ir own collective farms, where t'ced grain is spread by clderly widows or Iled Army soldiers killed while liberating Poland I'rom Nazi Germany.
The regime, possibly stij'fened by the inclusion of two mort' generals, has warncd that the se'lfstyled "hunger marches" (no one is starving) could lead to "an e'(pjosiot1 u[' national conflict." And they could indeed. In Warsaw on /\ugust :i for the first time police blocked a Solidarity demonstration, preventing it ['rom fllarching past Communist Party headquarters. And looming over thc crisis since the beginning is the possibility or Soviet military intervention, a course evidently viewed by the Krl'mlin with great reluctance. But re~gardless of the subjective intentions of th(' l'rcl11lin, the Warsaw Stalinists and the Solidarity leadership, economic chaos is driving Poland back to the brink. As we wrote in: "Whose Poland ')" (SpartaC:ist Canada No. 4B, May / June):
"Th(' rrilssivc> 5irik(' Wit,"'," ill the Dilltic ports
IriS! All"llSt brought )'olish workel'>; bf'for(' ;,
historic choice: with the billlkru[>!cy of St;,linist
1'111(' dranliltje;,lly ci('nl0nstrated, it wOllld be .-it}'er the path of bloody ('l>llnterrevolution in
September 1981
league with Western irnperialisrn, 01' the path of proletat'jan political revolution,"
Poland is experiencing an economic collapse in its own way comparable to the capitalist world's Great Depression of the unos. The official forecast is that the national output will fall 15 percent this year on top of a 4 percent drop in 1980 and a 2.5 percent decline the year before. lIow can this happen in a planned social ized economy':'
The direct origins of the economic crisis lie in the attempt of the bureaucracy under Edward Gierek to buy off the combative working class in the wake of the violent 1970 Baltic Coast uprising. Promising unparalleled prosperity, Gierek went on an unparalleled importing binge. Entire factories and sophisticated capital equipment were purchased from the West on a massive scale, as were finished consumer goodS. The Gierek regime expected, or at any rate hoped, to pay for all this by producing a flood of chpap manufactured exports. Thpse hopes were, to put it mildly, unfulfilled. Between 1971 and 1975 the import bill was double export earnings and by 1976 Stalinist Poland was into the bankers of Frankfurt and Wall Street f'or over $10 billion.
The Gierek regime mortgaged the Polish ('conorny not only to Western finance capital but also to its own rural petty capitalists. While freezing food prices for urban consumers, the government raised procurement prices paid to the landowning peasants. 1\s a result the food subsidy increased twenty times in the I$170s and now accounts for 70 percent of the price paid to farmers. Private peasants receive 14 zlotys for a liter of milk, which is sold to consumers in the shops for 2.90 zlotys. Despite the additional incentives Poland's aging, inefficient smallholders cannot produce nearly enough to meet the increased consumer demand. And despite the Stalinists' conciliatory policies the rural petty bourgeoisie remains deeply anticommunist and under the sway of clerical reaction. Its basic social attitude was recently summed up by British journalist Tim Garton Ash: "It is the conservative Catholic peasants of South- Eastern Poland who would overthrow communism at the drop of a Cardinal's hat" (Spectator, 14 L<'ebruat:'y 19B1),
In June 1976 the Gierek regime made an effort to get out of the economic hole it had dug for itself. To free up agricultural produce fer expor}, it announced a food price increase averaging 60 percent. The wot:'kers responded with violent strikes and demonstrations and within 24 hours the price increases were rescinded. Instead, to save scarce foreign exchange, the government cut back imports of raw materials and intermediate goods, while maintaining a high level of imports of meat, other foodstuffs and finished consumer goods (including Sony TV sets) I In the late 1 B70s Poland consumed annually 70 kilos of meat per capita, more than Italy or Spain. 1\t the same time, many factories couldn't fulfill their plan due to shortages of necessary foreis'Tl-produced inputs.
9
Contributing to the gr()wing crisis was a disintegration of lab(lr discipline, a rl'action to Gicrek's spectacular loss of credibility over the JlIlle '76 ('vents. When the governmcnt told workers to tight.'n their belts, they responded by voting with their productivity and \"ote was no cOllfidenc l'. f\ tl l\ n\(' 1'
iean diplomat in l',,]ancl in the latc W70s ['('calls: "1\ plant rnanagC'r otH'e told 111(' it was elilTil-ult ror him to tell whctll('r it was simply a 1l()rl1lal workday in the factory or whdhu' the workers were
engaged in a slow-down or working to rule" (H.T. Davis, "Political-Economic Dynamics in Eastern Europe: The Polish Casp" in U.S. C()ngress, Joint Economic Committee, I<ast 1':urolH'an i':cotlomic Assessment [IOHl]). --
The foreign exchange shor'tag(~ did not spare <:lgricuHuI'(' as the gov,'r'nnll'nt ('lit hack lH'stici<i., irnp()rts and couldn't supply spar'(' parts C()r Wl'stel'n-made [arm machinery, The peasallts too sl'ns('d the post'76 weakness of tilE' Gil't:'C'k !.'egina' and agitated j'()r higher procuremcilt price'S, dH'Cll)(T inputs and other bencfits. In 1!17D, I'r'i.'st-I(~d peasant "triL('s
Walesa (center) in solidarity with reactionary Polish Catholic church.
combined witli bad weather to I,,'dll(,(, til<' grain crop below its 1;)76 l,'v.'!. With a time' lag thL' I'('cd gl'ain slHlr'tt'all has r'ayag<'d till' livpstod; h.'rds, In the past hall' year' thE' nUI1l1.)('1' ()f ,'attl(' has r<'PO['tedly decreased 7 percent and the nUl1lbor oi' pigs n I)('r('cnt (l':eonomist, 1 1\ugust),
To maintain social peacp in its illl)ludant nrilitat'y ally, the Soviet Union has ('ontinllally p~tid otl Poland's Western creditor'S. /)espite this thl' Polish economy was sinking under' tile weight 01 massiv(' Io t'eign debt and incrcas ing intl' t'na l un r'C'st.
Solidarity and Cold Dual Power Last Slllltt11('r the Giu'pk "er;irne made ,Yct atwthl,[,
desperate attempt tl) get Poland to live withilt its means. 1'-01' the thir'd time in a deeacie the burpallcracy tr'i,'d to raise I'ood prices. The l'eslilt is a crisis that cuuld alter' the postwar w()r-Id.
((olllillU('d Oil I'dl;" [0)
"_'!lIIllIl'lllil""IIIIII ___ ' '''~IIII __ II·._~I •• ___ ''''-I __ '''' __ -' _________ •• 111If tn": ~:,
'In 1IIIn II III' II I 10
Poland ••• (continned from page 9)
A series of localized wage strikes culminated in a well-organized political general strike which shut down the Baltic Coast for two weeks. To prevent the strike from spreading throughout Poland, the regime recognL\ed the right to independent trade unions, the first time this has ever happened in a Stalinist-ruled state. Within months of the August :11 Gdansk agreement the new union movement embraced practically the entire Polish working class, including one million members of the Communist party. The depth of the social transformation is indicated by Polish sociologist Stefan Nowak: "The speed with which 10 million Poles assembled in the Solidarity movement testifies to the strength of the needs the movement serves" ("Values and Attitudes of the Polish People," Scientil'ic American, July 1DBl). Nowak observes that "skilled workers are now the main social force in Poland."
Yet while having a committed mass proletarian base, the new union movement has from its incep~ tion been led by pro- cle rical / nationalist forces hostile to the Soviet Union and sympathetic to the capitalist "free world." Lech Walesa and his colleagues see themselves leading the entire Polish nation against "Hussian-imposed Communism. " This is most graphically expressed by their fulsome support to the peasant smallholders organization, Rural Solidarity. Thus, the danger is real that the Polish crisis could enormously strengthen capitalist-restorationist forces. And with the political strength of the Catholic church, now headed by a Polish pope, the danger of counterrevolution is not at all abstract.
Since the Gdansk agreement we have maintained that the central task of a revolutionary (Trotskyist) vanguard in Poland would be to polarize the new union movement, winning the majority of wor-kers away from the anti-Soviet nationalistic leadership around Walesa. Trotskyists would fight within Solidarity for a program centering on the strict separation of church and state, unconditional military defense of the Soviet bloc against capitalismimperialism, a political revolution against the Stalinist bureaucracy and establishment of a government based on democratically elected workers councils (soviets), to carry out socialist economic planning (including the collectivization of agriculture). This program offers a socialist w~ out of the desperate and seemingly endless cr-ises wracking Poland.
Trotskyist League Djrectory Toronto Box 7198 Station A Toronto, Ont. M5W 1X8 (416) 593-4138
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The Stalinist bureaucracy is not a class but a caste which rules through the monopolization of political organization. Whatever the pious statements of the beleaguered Warsaw regime, it cannot
coexist with an independent union movement, much less one with the elemental social force 0[' Solidarity. Kania, Rakowski & Co. have just bought some time for themselves at the price of economic chaos.
Under pressure from Solidarity, the government has raised wages over 20 percent while production has dropped through the floor, in good part due to the introduction of the five-day workweek in January. The output of coal, the main export com modity, has fallen 20 percent in the last year and barely meets domestic requirements. The agricultural situation is, if anything, wor-se. Meat supplies are down 20 percent. The 1980 potato harvest was cut in half, sugar beet production by ohe quadeI'. To adjust demand to supply the regime has announced it is increasing the price of food and other necessities on average by 110 percent (!) while freezing wages. Poland is an extreme case of suppressed inflation about to become an extreme case of unsuppressed inflation.
The drastic cut in production and consumption has not eased the balance-or-payments deficits. On the contrary, since the Gdansk agreement Poland's hard-currency debt has jumped from $21 to $27 billion. The Polish Stalinists have responded to the crisis by becoming yet more dependent on Western finance capital, Meanwhile, they have relied on the Kremlin to bail them out-to the tune of $4. 5 billion in bilateral and hard-currency credits since last summer's strikes.
They are also moving toward greater dependence on their own petty capitalists. The new five-year plan (in itself a truly pollyannaish act of optimism) calls for increasing the share of agriculture in investment from 15 to 25 percent (If which threefourths will go to private farms (Economist, ] 1 July). In other words, almost 20 percent of all state investment funds arc to be placed in the hands of the landowning peasantry, considerably strengthening the social basis for counterrevolution. But one needn't give this particular bureaucratic fiveyear plan much credence. The showdown in Poland is coming long before then and will be decided by very different forces.
A Workers Poland, Yesl The deepening anarchy in Poland and the im
minence of violent clashes between Solidarity and the regime could bring Hussian soldiers into the streets of Lodz and Warsaw to restore bureaucratic order. No doubt the Stalinists' justification would be the need to "combat counterrevolution."
Certainly there are sizable forces for the restoration of capitalism, from the landowning peasantry to the Catholic church. Yet it is the main coun te 1'
revolutionary force in the world, U.S. imperialism, that is trying to provoke the Kremlin over Poland. Reagan/Haig want to see Polish workers throwing Molotov cocktails at Russian tanks in order to fuel
IIIII I'~'
September 1981
their anti-Soviet war drive. At best. Soviet rnilitary intervention would freeze
the political differentiation within the working class necessary for the only progressive solution of the Polish crisis: proletarian political revolution. At a minimum it would postpone the decisive confrontation between the w()t'kers alld their Stalinist rulers. But it could do far worse. It could spark violent resistance by the Poles. leading to a bloodbath that would crush the working class into the ground politically and produce an explosion of anti - [lussian nationalism that would take years. perhaps decades to overCOllle. This would be not merely a defeat for the socialist movem ent but a historic catas trophe.
Solidarity's opposition to a centrally planned economy (expressed in calls for "self-managed enterprises"-see "'Market Socialism' is AntiSocialist." Workers Vanguard No. 287. 14 August) and its "hunger marches" both express the anarchy which has engulfed the country. ,Poland does not need anarchy-it needs a socialist order. If ever there was a crying need for socialist econom.ic planning. it is Poland today. But socialist economic planning is possible only under the leadership of an authentically revolutionary workers party. And this requires the' ouster of the Stalinist bureaucracy which undermines socialized pt'oJlerty. Polish workers and the international proletariat must defend the revolutionary conquests that made it possible for Poland tu buil d out of the rural backwardness of the East ]<:uropean plains the tenth largest industri.al country ill the world!
TI)('re can be no thought of a working-class solution to the economic crisis without the collectivization 2!' agriculture Qnd the cancellation of the
imperialist debt. Yet both these programs arc
Tamils •.. (c·unlinued [1'Oln pa ge ))
government's claims about Itfake refugees. It deportation awaits thc rest of the Tamils in West Ikrlin.
[{ecognizing the urgent need for protest action to stop the deportations. the TLD ca1led for the July 24 West Berlin demonstration as a united-front protest around the slogans t'Pl)litical Asylum for the Tarnil Refugees I" ttStop the Deportations of Tamils I It and It])own with the Anti-Tamil Terror and Discrimination in Sri T >anka! It The demonstration was endorsed and addressec! by a spokesman of the local TULI<' as well as by the civil-libertarian Society for Endangered Pcoples. Endorsements for the united-Cront rally were also received i'rorn the Third World Group of the petty-bourgeois Alternative Liste. the League for Human Rights. the Gruppe Internationaae Mar:dsten (German Mandclites), the (es-)l\laoist Kommunistische Bund Westdeutschlands. the S(J~ialistische Linke and West Berlin member of parliament llita Kantemir.
A spokesman for thE' 'fLD addressed the rally: "We fight for full citi zenshi p rights for foreign workers. The Trotzkistische Liga Deutschlands and the international Spartacist tendency stand for the right of
11
directly counter to tht' de rical-nationalism of the Solidarity leadership. Solidarity's solidarity oj' the Polish nation causes it to champion the org,.mized peasant smallholders. evell as they drive up food prices while reducing supplies. The c3.nc(>]lation of the capitalist debt would be met with reprisals. economic and political. 1\ rev()lutiunary workers government would cuunter such .i rllperialist retaliation by apr>ealing to the West European working class to become conlrades in a new venture. the Socialist United States 0[' ]<:urope. Such an appeal is not merely inconceivable t() Walcsa and his colleagues. it goes Qgainst their entire political outlook.
The notion of "socialism in one country"-with or without workers self-management-is a Stalinist ideological fantasy. Certainly there can be no "independent. socialist Poland" some how l1l1Qfrected by the drive of ('apitalism-imperialism to destroy the Soviet Union. A socialist l'utllre rot'
Poland depends on the revolutionary unity of Polish and Russian workers. a unity diredcd against the Stalinist bureaucracy whose decadcslong capitulation to bourgeois forel's is respollsible for the present disastnllis situation. Poland ul'gently requires an ambitious e('onomic plan to restructure industry and bring about a technulogical revolution in agr-icillture. based on the collc'ctivized economy of proletarian statc power. A workers political revolution throughout Stalinistruled East Europe. led by Trotskyist pal'ties. would inspire til(' enthllsiasm. self-sacrifice and work discipline to put Poland back to work-and open the road to socialism .•
-Repri,lll'd fl'tHn WU"kcrs Viltq-\u;,rd No. ZH7, 14 August 19H 1
the Tamils to achieve national seli'-determinatioTl. The iSt has already held solidarity demol1strations in New York and London. In Colombo. comrades 0[' the Spartacist League/Lanka played a leading role in thc battle against the discrimination against Tamil students at the university.
"A determined strllggle must be carri cd out against the attempts of i\rnerican imperialism t() establish military bases on Sri Lanka. to be llsed in the framework of the Cold War hysteria against the Soviet Union. What is absolutely necessary is a Trotskyist party which unites Sinhalese and Tamil militants on an anti-chauvinist program. and leads the masses of plantation workers. tile women and all the oppressed in the struggle for <l Ivorkers and peasants government in Sri Lanka. as part ()I· a socialist federation or South Asia. ".
-R"printecl fruITI Workers V"Hglldrd Nu. ZH7, 14 August j')HI
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12
China ••• (continued fron! page 2)
smiles. toasts and condemnations of the "main enel11:)i." Soviet "expansionism," they also agreed on the regional "danger." Russia's ally Vietnam is the more immediate target in the global war against "Soviet Iwgcmonisrn." The LT.S. imperialists long to punish Vietnam not only because of the Vietnamese military victory-historic evidence of U.S. decline-but also because an attack on Vietnam fits into Reagan's overall anti-Soviet containment strategy. Hcagan/Ilaig are looking to demonstrate American military power. The targets are Afghanistan, Vielnam. 1':1 Salvador, and Angola/ Namibia.
So when I [aig went from Pc'king to a meeting of ASFAN in Manila it was Vietnam in his gunsights. A Stale Department official said the U.S. "will seek, if we can. to [·ind ways to inc ['ease the political. economic, and yes, military pressure on Vietnam" (Nc:w \ ot'k Tillles. iB June). Given the -------['ecent ['ise or attacks against the Vietnamese on their' borders. the U.S./China war axis may be planning anothet' altempt at a "bloody lesson. "
The 1:)70 invasion of Vietnam by China should have been a watershed for J\'laoists who had been bor'n into political life as supporters of the Viet Cong against l].S. imperialism. But those pseudoIdtists who didn't back China outright wailed over the spectacle of two "socialist countries" at war with ('ach otlier. J\t the lime the international Spartacist tendency emphasi7.ed that China was
SPARTACIST /Canada
acting de facto with 1'.S. complicity, demanding "China Don't Be Cat's Paw for U.S. Imperialism," and cal1ing on the Soviet Union to honor its treaty with Vietnam. Now the overt U.S./China alliance has confirmed that analysis. Thus a future attempt to "te,ach Vietnam a bloody lesson" will more likely be a combined imperialist and Chinese attack on a deformed workers state. part of a wider U.S. military thrust against the Soviet Union.
If Vietnam is the immediate target. it is Poland which casts the darkest shadow over the China arms deal. The precise military results for China cannot be known until the weapons are actually in Peking's hands. Thus more than one commentator has treated the announcement as a mystery while some speculate that it might be a mistake which could get IIaig into trouble with the White House. But the announcement was intended as a political provocation precisely calculated and of global proportion.
Consider the timing and effect of the announcement. Since April when Caspar Wein,perger spoke about the "linkage" between China arms sales and a possible Russian invasion of Poland. U.S. liberals have talked about holding up arms to China as a "deterrent" and "bargaining chip" with the Soviets. That is why Vance is screaming ~bout the China arms deal as! playing all the U.S.' China high cards in "no trump." lIe lueans that now the U.S. has nothing more to offer the Soviets in the way of a deal.
Canada Endorses U.S./China Arms Deal No sooner had ('anadian External Affairs
IVlinister Mark J\JacGuigan's plane landed in China. than it seellled that he was overtaken by the spi rit of his A me riean imperialis t big brother. General Alexander llaig (a man MacGuigan much aclrnires). In his first press conference lVlacGuigan announced Canada'S decision to sell "strategic goods" to China. which apparently could mean anything from trucks to high technology intelligence-gathering equipment.
The nature of the "goods" may have been unspecified. but the political message couldn't have been clearer. Certainly the bourgeois press played it for what it's worth; headlines designed to catch the public eye like "Our Arms to China" drove home the point that "loyal" Canada stands ready to enlist its feeble military establishment in the service of the 11.S. / China anti-Soviet war axis.
The Canadian bOllrgeoisie !tas occaSionally adopted a posture of disdain toward the triggerhappy cowboy president. superficially paralleling West European bourgeois opinion. But where the West Europeans-most importantly the ruling West German Social Democrats-nervously flinch at the prospect of a nuclear war fought on Euro-
pean soil. the small-minded Canadian imperialists squabble with their Southern neighbor over things like the "s·overeignty" or Canadian fishing waters and acid rain.
During the Vietnam war the Canadian government pretended to keep its hands clean. all the while seeking to profit from this dirty war against the workers and peasants of Vietnam. without the expense and mass domestic disaHection of direct military intervention. The proMoscow Stalinists of the CP have peddled this hypocrisy as a favorite theme in their neverending "peace offensives." catupaigning for "our" governn1ent to "dissociate" from the "regressive" policies of its senior partner. But if the American bourgeoisie thinks it can nuke the Russians and survive, Canada's jackal imperialists hope ~get "their" share when the radioactive dust settles.
The U.S. arming of China-the most dangerous provocation against the USSR since Reagan took office-may well be the prelude to World War III. As communists we understand that defense of the Soviet degenerated workers state and opposition to imperialist war begins with class struggle at home. Toward the North American Socialist Revolution! Defend the Soviet Union!
September 1981
But he mistakes the f{eagan purpose completely. which is not to deter the llussians. but to provoke them. The announcement was thus finelYtuned and calculated to urge the Hussians toward an invasion of Poland. l{eagan and llaig want nothing more than t;:;- see Russian tanks roll into Warsaw and Gdansk. They want to see the l{ussians dragged into a massive bloodbath in Poland while their troops are tied dc)wn at the Chinese border. So go ahead. says Reagan. There is no SALT. No bargains over Chinese guns. Nothing.
Reagan's goading of Hussia over China is part of a strategy of global confrontation. He i.s now talking openly of the "end" of Communism. while pushing for nuclear end-game. Against the backgrolmd of the China arms deal. multimillion-dollar weapons packages for Pakistan ("non-proliferation" be damned). the Hapid Deployment I"oree. the buildup of strategic and conventional forces in Europe and a projected trill ion -dollar war budget. H.eagan made the general case. "Communism." he said, is an "aberration ... not a normal way of living for human beings." We are seeing "the beginning of the end" (Washington Post, 19 June).
While the talks were going on in China. f{eagan spoke of Poland as the "first beginning cracks" in Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. Tile comment was supposed to be "off the cuff." but it was quite calculated. As bourgeois Russia-expert Hedrick Smith wrote in the New York Times (18 June): "That kind of remark from an American official is likely to harden the I\remlin's resolve to curb the movement for liberalization in Poland and possibly push ahead with military intervention despite the upheaval that is likely to ensue." When liberals like Cvrus Vance wail that [(eagan has misplayed his [c;reign policy hand. that he has too early and too provocatively "played the China card." they assume that he is engaged in a game of diplomatic pressure tactics. In fact it is a big step toward war.
Defend the Soviet Union! Where does the O.S. anti-Communist war strat
egy leave its "Chicom" ally') "You can't say that China will be Marxist forever." an American official recently told nervous Southeast !\sian ministers at Manila. Indeed. any "security" China imagines it can purchase with a O.S. military alliance will backfire. American imperialism is hostile to the expropriation of capitalism everywhere. The Reagan government particularly is WxlOus to see the eventual restoration or capitalism in China. And their handling or the issue or Taiwan is the tip-off.
The "sellout of Taiwan" has long been a hot issue between O. S. bourgeois liberals and the far right. So far the }{eagan administration. sensitive to the Taiwan issue with its natural constituency. and Deng & Co. who for internal political reasons cannot appear to be "sort on Taiwan" have submerged the issue of Taiwan to their overriding anti -Sovietism. Despite wrangling among {' .S. liberals and conservatives. the anti-Soviet war
13
drive is a bipartisan consensus in the bourgeOisie. The (j .S. / China aXIS was developed steadily I'rom Nixon/Kissinger through Carter/Brzezinski t(l Reagan/Haig.
This administration remembers the maps from the 1950s with rings of containment around the USSR and they arc out to make it real. I'rom Japan, through Asia and the l\1iddleEast and into Europe. Reagan is surrounding Hussia with I'irepowerrneant to contain. isolate and ultimately destroy the GSSH. In thi.s conl'liet there can be no neutrals. Trotskyists unl'onditionally clelcnd against imperialism thp Soviet bureaucratically degenerated workers state and the remaining social/economic conquests or the October Revolution!
In 1969. the Spartacist League/U.S. noted the "objective possibility-given the tremendous industrial and military capacity uf the Soviet linionof a P .S. deal with China" ("Dpvdopment and Tadics of the Spartacist League"). All of the Stalinist bureaucracies. whether I~ussian. eh inese -l\Iao or i)eng-or V ietnam esc share the anti-international conception or "socialism in ()ne country." In its name they stab one another in the bac k seeking deals with irn pe ri alis m for illusory national "advantages. " The llussian Stalinist bureaucracy is one of the l110St conciliatory outfits imaginable. But there arc limits. as Hitler found out.
Socialist revolution in the capitalist West is indispensable in order to destroy imperialist militarism-and to sweep away the [faigs. Weinbergers and Heagans who w()uld incinerate the world in thdr anti-Soviet crusade. And in the degenerat0d/deformed workers states not simply economic advancement but survival itself demands that the workers. led by a Trotskyist vanguard party. ollSt the Stalinist betrayers who bind them to the class enemy. 1\S thp U.S./China war' axis threatens to turn the Cold War nuclear hot. "n(' had better believe that the very existence ()I' thl' planet depends on this .•
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14
PATCO ••• (continued f"onl pdgl' 7)
Earlier. 'Vancouver controllers said Seattle air control had twice instructed planes to descend below the elevation of l\]ount Baker.
1\limicking Heagan. the Canadian government went after eATCA with a vengeance I'or their sympathy actions with the U.S. controllers. Transport Minister Jcan-Luc Pepin went running to the courts in a so-far unsuccessl'ul attempt to get a judicial ruling enabling him to /'ine and jail CATCA members.
LCUC Motion: Defend PATCO/CATCA! W1IEREAS: u.s. pn'sident Rl'agan's firing of striking iiir l!"ilHie ,'ontrlJlJcrs is a d,'cLHation of
Will' against lhe- enlire U.S. labor tnoventcnl; and
WHEREAS: the T"uc!"i!U gove'nllnenl hilS sl;lled
it,.; inl,'lili'J11 III dis,ipline' <tnd [ire' Canadian air
1""Hie l'()nt I"(']l('rs whu, in ;; c!";;nlalil' acl of inkrn;t1ion;t1 w()l'l,illg-class suEda"ity, hoycotted
lJ. s. (lj r ~fJ;l( (' (ltlr! ((lr 0\ t.'r 2.4 hour's shut down
,Ill Norlh AILlllli, fJigh1s; ;Ind
WIlEREAS: (;AT(;,\ has IlI'l'l1 wU"king withuut it
l'onLrdct ~in(~' 1)(,( ernb('r- and nu c'ontracl, no
wurk iOi it ba,.;ie t racil'-ul1iull prillciple; and
WHEREAS: CATCA is ullckr a nu-strike injul1c
ti()<) which is pa"l uf a gllverll,nent carnpaign 10
la],,· ;i\vay tlol only CATCA's right tl! stI"ike but
tlt,d "f pustal wud,e,'s and all public sectur
\\·urh.t·!':-.;;
TlTEREFORE IH: IT RESOLVED: lI'al. LCUC
LOlal 1 sland" in solidarity wilh PATCO (U.S.
dir Iraffic (ontl'lJl].'rs) <ind denlands that tl".'
Ndlional Offill' dclivl'lv d"f"IHi victirniy.ed CJ\TCA
llll'rnbl'l's up to and in,'lulling thl'ough Oil !"ike' action;
ilnd th;1l Wi' Cilll Oil th" CLC to ol'gatliz(' sudl
dllioll by ;tll of LIb"I' nati()nwide; and FTJRTH1':R rH: IT lZESOLVED: th,t! Wl' urge
CJ\TCi\ I) t;;k, 1\lrlh"r tniiil"nl ill'lion in soli
darily willt tit,· U.S. l untl'ollers dlld ill d"fens('
uf Ih,·i r ,)\\,'1 Ulli!)ll alld right to Cil rike, itlld that
Wt' ,;,JI UII l11(' :--.J;lli"ll,d Office and the CLC to
SllPPOJ't C ATC1\ ill Ih"Oil' actiuns including by st r'jkt, d{·ti()ll~ arid
FURTllER Dr,~ IT JU-:SOLVF:D: that we send
l "pi,'s lJf lhi s IHotion tu PATCO, CATCA, the
\. C L Can d tIll' J) J"(' S S , ~
Steel ... (,"nlil!ul'd fro,n [Jag" 1(,) c()urt injunction ut the strikers to keep the picket lines open to i'oremen, security guards and office personnel. Whcn f()!'cll1cn first tried to get through the lines picketers chanted: "Nobody in! T\()body ()ut I" The enr()rcPlllent pf the Losses' strikebreaking l;).ws is only a question of the balance of class fu!'ccs. Thousands of picketers at the flilton Works gates would reducc any court injunction to the
SPARTACIST /Canada
Suspensions without pay have already been handed out and the government has threatened further discipline for up to 150 controllers. All Canadian workers Inust come to the defense or the air traffic controllers and assure CATCA that further action in solidarity with their U.S. counterparts will have the backing of the whole labor movement.
A motion passed at the' August 20 general meeting of the Letter Carriers Union of Canada Local 1 called for LCUC and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) to back Ci\TCi'l's actions in de['ense of the American controllers (see box). Other motions passed at the same meeting called to make the motion a resolution to the upcoming Ontario [,'ederation of Labuur convention and to donate $100 to P ATCO.
The Trudeau government is only too eager to enforce the dictum of their senior imperialist partners in the White House that you can't strike against the government. Now it is preparing to go to court in an attempt to take away the right to strike for all the 1.782 operational air controllers.
Ci\TCA has been without a contract sinee i)ecember and working under a no-strike injunction since last October. llerels the opportunity to strike a blow against Reagan and against the Trudeau government's union-busting drive by striking now' Shut down the airports across North America I
The union bureaucrats fear any struggle which would pit them square up against the capitalist state. There is no middle way. As Trotsky said. the unions in this epoch of imperialist decay can serve either as secondary instruments of capitalism or instruments of the revolutionary movement of the working class, Indeed. part of the reason for Reaganls hardiine crusade to break the controllers' union is the bonapartist appetite or the bourgeois state ror the statification of the public workers' unions.
[,lans ['or the militarization of airport labo!' arc part and parcel 01' Ileagan's drive to put the U.S, on war footing. War budget. war inflation, moves 1'01' labor discipline are all of a piece as the U.S. gears up for imperialist war against the Soviet Union.
The controntation between labor and Heagan is on. l\nd labor had better win it. for the alternative is massive defeat. A defeat for U.S. labor would be felt in Canada and world wide. 1"01' labor solidarity to defend the 1,1.S. controllers' strike' Smash no-strike laws I Defend CATeA' Bust the union - buste rs ! •
-Adapled from V0:.!:,~"<':2:." Y_a.2 'l',.'lil.£,I:J No, 2,S7, 14 Allgu;;l 19S1
worthless scrap of pape!' it is. Shut it clown tight I Victory to the Stelco strike!
That the smaller Steko locals have separate agrel'ments is a powerl'Lll condcmnation oJ' the Canadian USWA tops W)IO have done nothing to fight for. let alone win. une contract for steel workers-not just at Stelco but industry wide. While Stelco workers have been pounding the pavement. the rest or Canadian stePl production is in full swing. The Stelco strike is a chancl' to ignite
September 1981
a major labor battle. centering on Canada's largest steel producers. that would lay the basis for a long-overdue industrywide contract covering all steel workers.
The same night the Stelco workers walked off the job. 9.500 workers went out at Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa. Three days later they were back at work with the acceptance of a deal bought by their leadership. The contract was only cosmetically different from the offer they voted down by SB percent. Only 5B percent of the Algoma workers voted for this sellout. testifying to widespread dissatisfaction in the ranks.
Why was there no appeal from Taylor and the Local 1005 tops for the Algoma workers to stay out with Stelco'~ Together they could win far more than the demands of the bureaucrats (one Local 1005 executive board member was forced to admit to an SC reporter that the local's demand of a $:i an hour wage increase over two years would just barely keep pace with mortgage rates). What about calling out USWA members at Sydney Steel in Nova Scotia') 4.000 Nova Scotia coal miners have been on strike for over a month. Coal and steel are directly related industries and th e need for solidarity is obvious. Now coal stockpiles are dwindling and Sydney Steel has started to layoff steel workers. Instead of taking the layoffs. this is the perfect opportunity to bring Sydney Steel workers out together with the coal miners and in a united offensive of all steel workers to win: a big wage increase; a full COLA; a shorter workweek at no loss in pay; a big boost in pensions; full medical, dental and life insurance benefits; the right to strike over unsafe working conditions; an end to discrimination and victimizations through union control of hiring and upgrading and promotions on a seniority basis.
Closer to home-literally right across the street from Stelco-is Canada's No. 2 steel producer. Dofasco. whose 11. 500 workers are non - union! The existence of this non -union plan~rikes right at the heart of the steel workers' union. as Local 1005 members know only too well. Taylor has promised to organize Dofasco workers after the strike. but if he had any real commitment to organizing them at all. he would bring them out side by side with the Stelco strikers and organize them now r-
Cec Taylor is part of the self-proclaimed "maverick" camp in the USWA bureaucracy that postures as a "militant" alternative to the ossified and corrupt USWA tops. The leader of this camp
MARXIST LITERATURE
Trotskyist League Public Office Hours Saturdays, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Suite 502, 299 Queen Street West, Toronto Phone (416) 593·4138
15
in Canada is Dave Patterson. president of Local 6500 (Inco miners). who recently landed himself the job of USWA District 6 Director representing Ontario's 100,000 USWA members. Patterson defeated incumbent Stewart Cooke by appealing to the anger and frustration in the union ranks toward the man who has stood behind every sellout contract and whose unwritten no-strike rule was defied by the militant Inco miners in 1978. But it was this strike that also gave the lie to Patterson's claim to be the militant voice of the rank and file.
Local 1005 president Cec Taylor: "Progressive" labor bureaucrat opens picket lines.
Like Taylor today. Patterson opened the Inco workers' picket lines first to security guards (on the grounds that these rented eops are "fellow unionists" !) and then to hundreds of supervisors and clerks. After being out for eight months angry miners dr(we Patterson into seclusion when he tried unsuccessfully to sell them a rotten offer. To railroad through the sellout that was finally accepted. he bureaucratically added the votes of the bargaining committee to those of the stewards' body which 'had rejected the deal.
Virtually the entire left. with the exception of the Trotskyist League. hailed Patterson's election as a victory for the rank and file. And within Local 1005. supporters of the Communist Party and the fake-Trotskyist Hevolutionary Workers League have uncritically supported the "militant" Taylor. That Patterson and Taylor have done nothing to mobilize the tremendoLlS economic muscle of the USWA behind the Stelco strike and in a struggle for one contract for all steel workers is striking confirmation that their "militant" version of business unionism offers no alternative to the USWA tops.
It will take a class-struggle leadership to make the USWA a fighting union. A leadership that will lead the working class to victory over the bosses and their government..
----, ,", __ , .,, ___ '_ •• _w ______________________ '11I
SPARTACISTCANADA Strike at Stelco
Victory to the Steel Workers!
Stelco workers hit the bricks .
. I\tlgust ~(\-ln theil' I'irst stl'ike since 1D6D, 12,500 steel w()l'kef's at Stcko's giant Jlilton W()l'ks in llal1lill()n w:1lkcd ,>ll the .iob at midnight Jllly :n. '1'11(:), werf' joined ()rJ I ilL' picket litH'S by 5,000 steel W()rkpl'S at Sl1laller Steleo operations across Ontat'io and (~uelw('. In tw<'1vc yeal's without a str"ike ,'-;lclco W()rkl'I'S have Sf'CI1 thei r" wages eroded by a string or rotten contracts railroaded through by the United Steelworkers or }\lllcrica (USW1\) tops. This titne thpy declared ;'Enollgh is i':nollgh I" While Slelc() boasts I'econ! pI"orits its oller was a misel'ly $1.1'1 ovet' oj tlll'PL'-year" contract. With steel produdiotl b()oming alld sl<wkpill"s luw, lhe str-ikers knllw they arc in a g·Oll(J posilioJ1 tn race the bosses c!()wn. "We'v(" g·ut 'e111 b:v 1I1l' silort hail'S. Now wI:'re going to S(]lI('('/'C alld r llte~\Il really squeeze" one ;'3tri ker t,(jld a SpaJ"t.:rcist Can:tcLi rep()rter", (",pre,,:sing till' ,strikc!"s' dd('r'mination to I·c)rce tlte Stclc() IJ()SSl'S' hacks to the wall.
St (' ('1 IH"oducti()tl at tile Ili1t()n Works Itas been ('cll11pletely Siliit el()\\ 11 hy til(' strikers of USWi\ Local 100;). lillion r1lilit'lnts have made successflll attl:mpts to stop st('(-] produced before tltl' strike fr()m moving. I"lyi ng pil'kl't squads have been sent tll Ule Samllel. Son & Co. warehouse in nearby StOlley Creek where Stdc(l steel was stored anel to a lc'asing company that was renting trucks uSl'd 1·01' tiw transport (If Sl'~liJ stel'l. i\n attempt to move steel by train was averted when a picket line was
Dale Brazao/Toronto Star
thrown up at a rail siding. The train's air brakes malfunctioned and three cars carrying Stelco sted were derailed. And the union has made an appeal to seamen to refuse to handle shipments in and out of Steico during the strike.
As we go to press. local steel union bureaucrats representing workers at Stelco's finishing plants in Ontario have rCl.mmed through contracts. splitting the ranks of tile strike. Six of eight of the smaller Steleo lCKals have voted to return to work along with :).000 workers at Ste1co's Nanticoke steel-making works. But two flamilton-area finishing plants told the bureaucrats what they could do with their yellow-dog contract and voted it down.
The company hopes that these settlements will be a demoraliZing blow to the Local 100;) strikers. But llilton Works is the powerhouse and the strikers knuw they have the muscle to shut Stelco down tight. Use it I Build mass pickets at Ililton Works! Send (Jut flying picket squads to stop Stplco sted from moving from wherever it is stored! No worker should handle Stelco steel until the strike is won I Get the rest of the labor movement to back you up with concrete actions of labor solidarity. !{ail and transport workers. seamen and longshoremen: Refuse to handle .':1telco steel!
i'"rom the beginning oj' the strike. Local 1005 president Cec Taylor has wavec! the threat or a
(Cl)ntillllC'ci un pagt' 14)